Thursday, 25 April 2013

With Iron Man 3 Marvel Studios found themselves in a somewhat precarious
situation. Coming off the back of the super hit superhero extravaganza The Avengers, they had a lot to live up
to and in a sequel to the poorly received Iron
Man 2, they had some damage to undo. Stuck between a team of superhero
rocks and an iron suited hard place they’ve managed to pull it out of the bag
once more and produce a thoroughly entertaining action movie which is in my
view, the best Iron Man movie to
date.

Our arrogant, former playboy hero
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is now settled with his live in girlfriend Pepper
Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). While Potts manages Stark Enterprises, Stark himself
tinkers in his basement on new designs and upgrades for his Iron Man suit. Unwanted
flashbacks to the events at the close of The
Avengers movie provide a distraction to his work and coupled with insomnia
he begins to lose focus on what really matters in the life of Stark, instead
focussing on his alter ego. With his dedication to Iron Man reaching addictive
levels he finds he needs to focus when a new menace threatens the world in the
form of shady terrorist The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and a small army of indestructible
men whom he has at his disposal.

Thursday, 11 April 2013

Gandhi is a multi
award winning biopic set around the life of Mohandas Gandhi and the formation
of an independent India.
The film opens with Gandhi’s final few moments in 1948 and then goes back to South Africa in
1893 when a fresh faced, idealistic and well educated Gandhi arrives as a newly
qualified lawyer. His treatment in one of the most despicably racist countries
on the planet helps to formulate his ideals and it isn’t long before the young
lawyer is standing up to the authorities for the rights of South Africa’s small
Indian population. Throughout his life Gandhi takes a stand on human rights and
once back in his homeland he sets about pushing India towards independence against
a stern and unmoving British regime.

I saw this movie a couple of years ago and before I did I
have to be honest and say that I knew very little about Gandhi’s life. The film
changed my view of Gandhi from the little guy in a cloth who preached about
peace towards a greater understanding of who he was, what he stood for and what
he means for so many people, not only in India but around the world. The film
is in a word spectacular and features a terrific story of true life struggle
and determination which is populated by great characters and a fantastic
central performance.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

Gary Dove (Ray Winstone) is an ex safe cracker now living in
retirement in Spain.
He and his best friend Aitch (Cavan Kendall) live idyllic lives in the Spanish
sun but their relaxed lives are interrupted by the arrival of terrifying London gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) who tries to
forcefully persuade Gary to do another job back
in the UK.
Despite his protestations Don won’t take no for an answer and an uneasy
standoff develops between the two men.

I’ve never been a fan of the Guy Ritchie style London based gangster
films and get annoyed that British films are generally divided into costume
drama or East End Gangster flicks. Sexy
Beast feels very different from the Gut Ritchie style of film and reminded
me more of a Nicholas Winding Refn film. The colour saturation, violence and
electro, bass heavy soundtrack are all signatures of his work and had I been
told this was one of his films I wouldn’t have doubted it. The film is actually
the debut feature of Director Jonathan Glazer who is better known as a Director
of adverts and music videos. He brings his easy on the eye style to the big
screen and here creates a memorable film which also has one of the best Ben
Kingsley performances I’ve seen.

Monday, 26 November 2012

As the Germans are relocating the city’s Jews into a self
contained ghetto, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) arrives in Krakow to make his
fortune from war profiteering. Having lavished gifts and charm on the ruling
Nazis, Schindler persuades the influential Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern (Ben
Kingsley) to oversee his business of manufacturing mess kits. By hiring Jews,
Schindler has a seemingly ever lasting supply of cheap/free labour and gets
rich quick but his attitude towards the treatment of the Jews changes when he
witnesses the clearing of the ghetto. While before he turned a blind eye, he
soon became more interested in the plight of his workers until finally trying
to save over a thousand from certain death at great cost and risk to himself.

Undoubtedly one of the most powerful and films of the last
twenty years, Schindler’s List has
become the foremost film for telling the story of humanities darkest and most irrepressible
days. Despite incredibly moving films such as The Pianist and Life is
Beautiful, Schindler’s List
stands alone at the top as not only a moving and distressing portrayal of
humanity at its worst and best but also as a sublime exercise of film making.
For me Schindler’s List of one of the rarest of films for which I have no criticism
whatsoever. I can’t think of a single shot, line or movement which could be
improved.

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Admiral General Aladeen (Sasha Baron Cohen) is the dictator
of the fictitious North African Republic of Wadiya. After his attempts to build
nuclear weapons are announced he is summoned to the UN to explain his and his
country’s plans. While in New York
he is betrayed and an attempt is made on his life. After escaping he discovers
that he has been replaced with a double and finds himself working in a vegan, shared
earth coop where he becomes friends with Zoey (Anna Farris). Aladeen uses the coop
to try to regain his identity and his grip on power in Wadiya.

For his 4th feature, Baron Cohen has moved away
from the mocumentary style for which he has become synonymous and The Dictator is mostly played as a
straight forward comedy feature. The character of Aladeen is based on a hodgepodge
of various real life dictators and draws from the West’s perceptions of them
and their countries. The result is that Aladeen is a racist, sexist, cartoon
who while being occasionally funny, generally fails to impress. The humour of
the film on the whole failed to resonate with me and the majority of the
audience I saw it with, indeed a man on the row in front of me walked out about
an hour in having not laughed once.